Preparation of fluorescent glasses with variable compositions

Results on exploration of making a large variety of different glasses, which are easy to make, have compositions distinguishable from each other, and are easy to be located in a complicated background, is reported. Porous glasses made by leaching a sodium borosilicate glass were used as the starting glass. The porous glasses were soaked in a solution containing soluble salts (mostly nitrates) of the necessary cations. When the pores in the porous glasses were filled with the solution, excess solution was removed and the glasses were heated at 650 °C for 3 h to decompose the salts in the pores into oxides. A group of salts are found useful for this purpose. By impregnating a fluorescent agent into the porous glasses, the glasses are made fluorescent under ultra-violet light and easy to be located. UO3, Eu2O3, and some laser dyes are found to be appropriate fluorescent agents for this purpose. The effects of the concentrations of some fluorescent agents in the impregnating solution on the fluorescence intensity of the impregnated glasses were studied. The oxides impregnated into the glasses are also found to have strong influence on the fluorescence intensity of the glasses impregnated with a fluorescent agent.